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Finished Brandon Sanderson's first book of his "Stormlight Archive" series last night. Not huge on how the first third to half of the book was a giant infodump of fantasy names (Kindle's X-Ray is amazing for this crap), but it definitely ramped up to being some of his best work for the second half. Very much looking forward to the next nine books.

Also, I love the fact that Sanderson is already planning for a "crisis on infinite earths" style crossover between all his universes. Probably won't come to fruition for at least 10-20 years seeing as how, while the man is a freak, he has 9 more Stormlight books and probably 6 more Mistborn, not to mention his other work to go before it will be anything more than "Vin meets Kaladin". But still looking forward to seeing how everything ties together since the Stormlight Archives already seems to be written with this in mind as a certain character from the multiverse is playing a pretty big role (and it is implied that events may apply to multiple worlds).

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After a visit to the book store this weekend I found a brilliant little hardbacked copy of The Hobbit, really nice faux leather cover, gold gilding letters and gold leaf edges on the page. Illustrations too.

So reading through that again.

If most books presented themselves as such joys to look at I'd just buy them to put them on a shelf and admire.

"Halo is designed to make the player think "I look like that, I am macho sitting in my undies with my xbox""

Finished Brandon Sanderson's first book of his "Stormlight Archive" series last night. Not huge on how the first third to half of the book was a giant infodump of fantasy names (Kindle's X-Ray is amazing for this crap), but it definitely ramped up to being some of his best work for the second half. Very much looking forward to the next nine books.

Also, I love the fact that Sanderson is already planning for a "crisis on infinite earths" style crossover between all his universes. Probably won't come to fruition for at least 10-20 years seeing as how, while the man is a freak, he has 9 more Stormlight books and probably 6 more Mistborn, not to mention his other work to go before it will be anything more than "Vin meets Kaladin". But still looking forward to seeing how everything ties together since the Stormlight Archives already seems to be written with this in mind as a certain character from the multiverse is playing a pretty big role (and it is implied that events may apply to multiple worlds).

Have you read The Alloy of Law yet? Short, especially compared to this (hell, short compared to Elantris) but genuinely some of my favourite writing that he's done. Totally agree with you that the first half wasn't great but it really pulls itself together once it starts storytelling and stops with the encyclopedia stormlight nonsense. Even if I thought nobledudes scenes were unremittingly dull.

Have you read The Alloy of Law yet? Short, especially compared to this (hell, short compared to Elantris) but genuinely some of my favourite writing that he's done. Totally agree with you that the first half wasn't great but it really pulls itself together once it starts storytelling and stops with the encyclopedia stormlight nonsense. Even if I thought nobledudes scenes were unremittingly dull.

Yeah. The only major POV character I found particularly interesting for the first half or so was Kaladin, and that was mostly just because stuff was actually happening to him (and even that was a bit hard since he was whiny as hell). But, by the second half, Sanderson finished the expository crap that I am gonna have to wiki for when the sequel(s) come out and was focusing on giving each character a voice, so yay.

And yeah, I very much enjoyed The Alloy of Law. Was nice to not have an overpowered superhero as the protagonist and I am a sucker for fantasy "westerns". Didn't have the same holy-crap-quotient as the Mistborn trilogy (mostly because it was originally a self contained side story), but I think I enjoyed it a lot more

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Just finished Aleksandr Alferov's "Teaching native language in school" (1910). First, it is a very interesting piece on history of russian education given by a dedicated and experienced teacher. Second, the book is a pure joy to read (especially compared to a contemporary books on subject) thanks to its beautifully simple and elegant use of language and clever form and logic.

But still looking forward to seeing how everything ties together since the Stormlight Archives already seems to be written with this in mind as a certain character from the multiverse is playing a pretty big role (and it is implied that events may apply to multiple worlds).

My uncle died very unexpectedly almost exactly a year ago, so my aunt gave me some of his books last week (she doesn't read English). I only knew a few of them, but as it turned out they were all rather good.

Mark Kurlansky: Cod.
It's about the fish and the history of the fishing of it. It may not sound all that exciting, but it's actually very interesting (and cleared up some weird memory I had about Iceland and the UK almost being at war. I had sort of decided it was a fake memory, but it wasn't).

Mark Kurlansky: The Basque History of the World.
Very interesting too. About the only thing I knew about the Basques was the stuff in the news in the seventies and eighties about ETA (which is partly why the author wrote the book; that was all the news covered).

(My aunt had also had Salt by the same author and I've heard it should be very good, but my half-cousin grabbed it).

Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger.
Kind of ashamed to say that I think this may be the first book I've read by an Indian author, but it's very good. It's styled as a letter to the Chinese Premier and tells the story about the main character's life and how he ended up becoming an entrepreneur (he's writing because he believes the Chinese don't have any and that they need them).
He comes from a very poor family and the story is much about how things can be for poor people in India (I can't vouch for the veracity, but it certainly rings true). It's rather enlightening, in a kind of terrifying way, but it's also very amusing at the same time. Very well written.

Alasdair Gray: Lanark.
Odd, but good, and certainly fit right into my current mood. It's kind of difficult to say much about it, but worth reading.

Graham Greene: The Comedians.
I expected this to be iffy, probably because I got too affected by the terrible seventies cover with its 'coming soon as a major motion picture' blurb, but it's excellent and taught me a bit about Haiti (I vaguely knew some bits, but the story is set right after Papa Doc took over and I expect it's quite accurate in its portrayal of things)

Graham Greene: The Quiet American.
I already had this and have read it numerous times, but I read it again anyway and it's still excellent.

I was thinking about the books I read as a kid and there's two that I can't remember the names of right now. I was hoping someone could help me out.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all the adults are dead. The children live in communities of their own. A group of, perhaps three, children decide to move on from where they are to escape starvation. They have a horse. Throughout their travels they are pursued by a packs of blind dogs. In the biting cold they find shelter in another community living in the midst of all the snow. The have a stockpile of apples that they subsist on. The group lives there for a while until one of them realizes that the cold is slowly killing them, and that it's the apples that make them less sensitive to it. Also, the kids refer to someone dying as ''stopped dreaming".

I'm rather certain I read this as a kid (or young teenager, perhaps) too, but I don't have any idea who the author or what the title was either...

There were (at least) four characters from his multiverse in the book. For the record, I only identified one of them on my own and was suspicious of one based on what I know of Sanderson's Cosmere.

Spoilerating

Wit/Hoid. He appears in basically every Sanderson book in some form or another, but I believe this is the first time he has actually been a POV character and this closely tied to the plot. I didn't realize he was that guy, but I was suspicious based on him actually referencing the Cosmere a few times.
Those three guys talking to the fisherman: One of them was apparently Demoux (Elend's General, the guy Kelsier helped beat the larger guy to manipulate his army. I actually realized it was him :p), one is from Elantris, and the last has been confirmed as from an as-yet unpublished series.

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Speaking of Pratchett, I'm on my second book now - Going Postal. So far pretty good, reminds me of Guards Guards in overall setup and structure (i.e. some institution in AnkMorph with a cast of wacky characters whom I'm guessing will transform it from the mess it is back to its proper glory). Keeps coming up with new ideas / plot segments that keep me interested, and the humor + social commentary is dead on!

Originally Posted by Track

Also, I personally couldn't get into 1984. I get why people love it, but I found that it was an interesting set of ideas shoehorned into a rather bland story. And when the main character started reading a textbook for 20 pages I wanted to throw the thing across the room.

Aye, the problem I had with the book is that it was just overdone - I felt like every second sentace was all about "doom and gloom woe is our life." Ok, I get it, shit sucks, move on and make some new points already.

Currently reading Eragon. It was not until recently I found out that the movie was based on a book, and even better, the book is the part of a series. I've always preferred series to single books as even though one book ends, there is always the next book to be read. That, and the anticipation about the path the story line follows next.

Like it so far but way too often author shakes things up a bit exactly when I'm about to say "Whoa, this is getting way too repetitive" out loud, so maybe it's a good pacing, but I think not. Anyway, most of the first half of this book was mild and tranquil, but then in the middle it suddenly went into the eye stabbing territory. Then when it was about to return to normal it got into a sex with faeries territory. And then there was an implied rape flashback? Are things escalating? Is this a good sign? I dunno. That scene with a night fight( where eye and kidney stabbing happened) was good, though. Exactly the powertrip I wanted. Finally some believable magic system and no archaisms like pointy hats and fireballs.

Random thoughts:

Main character( and others, presumably) in this novel may have the best ability in all fantasy novels combined. It's the ability to think clearely(!!!) aka Heart of Stone. Guess what? He uses it like twice. Why? Why won't he use it more often? Its superusefull when you are a teenage idiot. Mother of god...

Magic system in this novel is very nice and balanced. Magic gets used like twice in 1000+ pages. What is this, Enders Game?

I really like how author sidestepped that usual "Here goes romance" thing. Instead of the Wizard and Glass-style "...and then they fucked nonstop for 1000+ pages until plot happened" we have some bizzare quazi-romantic relationship. It is actually better than it sounds.

...even better, the book is the part of a series. I've always preferred series to single books as even though one book ends, there is always the next book to be read. That, and the anticipation about the path the story line follows next.

For your own sake, don't read any other book by Paolini. I can't believe I stole money from my parents to buy the piece of shit that was Eldest.

Eragon is so Mary Sue-ish that it can hurt you and amount of cliches (poor kid, dead familly, burned village, kid finds dragon, kid is beaten by everyone, but then he is magicaly transformed into ubermensch so he can beat everyone etc.) it have is outrageous.
But then what can you except from book written by 15 year old kid?

Aah... I enjoyed Name of the Wind but about halfway through Wise Man's Feared realized the book (and, well, the series) are actually pretty terrible. It's really repetitive as heck when you think about it, with the same "woe is me how will I pay my tuition?? DEUS EX MACHINA! phew I'm good for next semester" scenario bescially repeating over and over. Stretching it out to 1000+ pages doesn't help. And it suffers from numerous typical tropes/cliches, like Kvothe being way too perfect and half the book being basically bragging about how awesome he is at everything...except romance.

Personally I hated the romance for how utterly retarded kvothe is about it and yes, it also repeats the same scenario over and over ("oh I think I might have a chance - girl disappears - girl comes back with another dude - girl drops dude - oh I think I might have a chance...")

I would agree the magic system is pretty interesting and well explained tho.

Personally I hated the romance for how utterly retarded kvothe is about it and yes, it also repeats the same scenario over and over ("oh I think I might have a chance - girl disappears - girl comes back with another dude - girl drops dude - oh I think I might have a chance...")

This is completely believable behavior for a teenage boy with zero sexual experience.